RetroIndy: Mayor William H. Hudnut III

Four-term Indianapolis mayor presided over the city's transformation from 1976-1992

Jan. 10, 2013 12:11 PM

On Nov. 4, 1975, former minister William H. Hudnut III defeated Democrat Robert V. Welch to earn the first of what would become four terms as mayor of Indianapolis.

Hudnut's 16 years as mayor were a time of great growth for downtown Indianapolis and he had a hand in most of it. Although his predecessor, Richard Lugar, is rightly credited with beginning the transformation of Indianapolis, it was Hudnut who presided over the renovation of Union Station, the birth of the Circle Centre Mall and the courtship of the then-Baltimore Colts.

In the early 1980s, Hudnut partnered with former rival Welch on a risky plan to build an NFL-class domed stadium even though the city did not yet have an NFL team or even any clear promise of one. The Hoosier Dome (later to become the RCA Dome) opened in 1983. The following year Hudnut negotiated the Colts' move to Indianapolis.

At 6-6, Hudnut was only an inch shorter than Miller and just as easy to spot in a crowd.
He dressed as a leprechaun for the St. Patrick's Day Parade, rode a snow plow during the Blizzard of 1978 and consoled families after disasters like the Ramada Inn plane crash of 1987.

During his fourth term Hudnut ran for Indiana secretary of state in 1990 in what may have been a step towards running for governor, but he lost to Democrat Joe Hogsett.
Hudnut left the mayor's office in 1992 at a time when he was still popular enough to have won a fifth term, though his final years as mayor were hampered by long delays in the Circle Centre Mall project and a police scandal involving the shooting death of 16-year-old Michael Taylor in the back of a police car.